Category: December 2016

Oil prices are holding close to unchanged Thursday after data that suggested an unexpected rise in U.S. stockpiles has put a cap on a recent rally. The American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, said late Wednesday that its estimates showed crude inventories rising 4.2 million barrels in the week ended Dec. 23, a week when analysts expected stockpiles had shrunk. Prices slipped on the news and have budged little since, extending a period of relative stasis that began late in…

Crude oil futures rose Tuesday amid muted holiday trading as investors remain in a wait-and-see mode ahead of a landmark effort by oil producers to reduce global supply. U.S. crude for February delivery gained 88 cents, or 1.66%, to settle at $53.90 a barrel. Brent, the global benchmark, rose 93 cents, or 1.69%, to $56.09 a barrel. Starting January, most members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and 11 other non-cartel producers are expected to scale back their…

Oil climbed in New York, capping the longest winning run in more than four months amid optimism that output cuts by major producers will help eliminate a supply glut. Futures advanced 1.7 percent in New York, rising for a seventh session to the highest close in more than 17 months. Prices are set to recover next year as production cuts help to re-balance an oversupplied market, Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said last week. OPEC and 11 nations from outside…

We published our 2017 forecast earlier this week. One of our predictionsis that Russia is in for a difficult year economically. This is because Russia’s economy depends significantly on oil. The price of oil in 2016 has averaged roughly $43 a barrel. That’s a far cry from two years ago, when it was more than double. According to Russia’s Federal Customs Service, oil-export revenue accounts for 26 percent of total revenue from Russian exports. For an economy with exports making up almost…

Crude oil prices edged up for a fourth consecutive session on Wednesday, close to their highest levels since mid-2015, ahead of U.S. oil inventory figures and as the market awaits evidence of OPEC supply reductions in the new year. U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WIT) crude oil prices settled up 16 cents at $54.06 for the best close since July 2, 2015. The intraday peak fell just short of the year's high of $54.51 reached on Dec. 12. Prices fell…

It may be time for a baby boom in U.S. oil. Rising crude prices and a deregulatory push in Washington may spur as many as 40 companies to hold initial public offerings over the next two years, potentially tripling 2016’s activity, according to Maynard Holt, chief executive officer at Houston-based investment bank Tudor Pickering Holt & Co. After a year in which explorers in the Permian shale basin straddling Texas and New Mexico dominated the business, interest in new oil-industry…

Last New Year, the business staff of The Dallas Morning News put together a list of the key topics likely to shape DFW's business landscape. And we did pretty well. We thought oil prices were likely to remain lower but relatively steady throughout the year, and we cast doubt on prevailing predictions that our economy would tank if lower oil prices did, in fact, persist. We were right on all counts. We foresaw downtown Dallas becoming even cooler, and expected…

The export of U.S. natural gas is climbing — and much of it is coming from Texas shale fields and bound for power plants in Mexico. As Mexico continues to overhaul and modernize its energy sector, its appetite for U.S. natural gas is swelling. Daily pipeline exports to Mexico rose 25 percent in August, compared with the year before, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. August exports were up 85 percent from the average amount of natural gas that…

Productivity in the oil and gas industry for the Eagle Ford Shale is increasing, but experts say they don't expect a boom anytime in the near future. "It would take a tremendous and unexpected increase in global demand to get up to over $100 a barrel, which I don't expect to happen," said economist Karr Ingham, owner of InghamEcon in the Amarillo area. "That's not to say it couldn't." A quarterly meeting between oil industry and DeWitt County officials Dec.…

The number of oil and gas rigs in U.S. fields rose again this week, up 16 over last week. It’s the third double-digit increase in a row and a boom of 85 rigs over the past month. U.S. oil drillers collectively sent 13 more rigs into the patch this week, the Houston oilfield services company Baker Hughes reported Friday. Gas drillers added three. Oklahoma led the rise, with six. West Texas’ Permian Basin added four. The total rig count rose…